1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to mechanisms for communicating between components within computing devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to an object-based technique for communicating between a host and an embedded controller within a computing device.
2. Related Art
As computer systems become increasingly more sophisticated, they have begun to include mechanisms to perform system-management functions, such as thermal management and power management. However, in some cases, using the central processing unit (CPU) and the operating system (OS) to handle these system-management functions does not make sense. For example, using the CPU to perform thermal-management operations can be counterproductive because the CPU, which is the highest-power consuming component in the computer system, is being used to manage power consumption. Hence, it is advantageous to manage some of these system-management functions using a separate embedded controller. For example, embedded controllers can be used to perform thermal-management operations and to configure and control various devices within the computer system.
In order to communicate with an embedded controller, a communication protocol is needed. One such protocol is the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) protocol. Unfortunately, this standard protocol does not provide much flexibility to add new devices and new functionality to the computer system. One solution to this problem is to simply extend the protocol to accommodate new devices. Unfortunately, this solution requires the communication protocol to be modified each time a new device is added to the computer system.
Hence, what is needed is a method and an apparatus for interacting with a computing device without the problems described above.